Curette.



PATENTED DEC. 3, 1907.

L; G. LANGSTAPF.

. GURBTTB.

APPLICATION FILED MAY '1. 1906.

THE NORRIS PETERS 00.. wAsHma-ron, 0x.

LEWIS G. LANGSTAFF, OF NEW. YORK, N. Y.

CURETTE.

Specificatiomof Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 3, 1907.

Application filed May '7, 1906. Serial No. 315,513-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lnwrs G. LANGSTAFF,

a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, city and State of New York, have invented a certain new and use ful Improvement in Curettes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has relation to an improved form of curette which, while particularly inexpensive to manufacture, presents certain advantages in facilitating the operations for which it is designed.

The improved instrument is illustrated in a preferred form in the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of the entire instrument, Fig. 2.is a median longitudinal section of the forward portion of the same and Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the plane ac-ac in Fig. 2. The usual handle is shown at 1, and this may be of any well known construction, being ordinarily of metal preferably shaped with somewhat rounded corners as shown to facilitate manipulation. From the end of this handle there extends forward the stem 2 of the curette which is made of appropriate length for reaching the parts to be treated. The operative portion of the.

instrument is shown at 3 situated at the extreme outer end of the stem 2. This operative portion takes the form of a round ed hook, as shown, presenting a thin. but not too sharp straight edge 4 turned back toward the stem. This form of operative end has two principal advantages. In the first place, as a straight edge is presented for the scraping operation, instead of a sharp curve more or less beak-like, the surgeon can operate with greater security and can bear more firmly on his work without danger of piercing the parts worked on. manufacture of the instrument is cheapened, since it is possible to make the stem of a '45 single plate of metal bent over into a rounded Secondly the In the preferred form taken by my desingle piece of metal plate which is curved somewhat sharply to form a grooved stem as shown plainly at 7 in Figs. 2 and 3, whereby thin plate having a properly sharp scrap ing edge is made sufficiently rigid for the work in hand. The channel 7 does not extend to the end which remains flat for a certain distance and is then bent at the end as heretofore described.

Inasmuch as the tissues sought to be removed in curetting have a certain degree of tenacity, I prefer to shape the operating head so that the material immediately in contact with the instrument will often be entangled as it-were with. the instrument, thus increasing the efifective action of the whole, since a certain degree of tearing away is combined with the scraping operation. With this end in view I provide one or more openings 8 and 9 in the bent head through which pass parts of tissue scraped up by the edge 4 and, becoming entangled therewith, provide a firmer engagement between the tissue as a whole and the instrument than would be afforded by the. scraping edge alone. This feature of the device is notessential to my broad invention. I

A variety of changes maybe made in this instrument without departing, from the spirit and scope of the invention and I do not limit myself to the details herein shown and described.

' What I claim is 1. A curette having its outer end turned back to form a rounded hook, said hook being provided with a substantially straight scraping edge on its turned back portion and a curved scraping edge at the side of the hook, and also being provided with one or more openings adjacent to said straight and curved scraping edges.

2. A curette having its outer end turned back to form a rounded hook, said hook being provided with a substantially straight scraping edge on its turned back portion and curved scraping edges at the sides of the hook, and also provided with one or more openings adjacent to said straight and curved scraping edges.

LEWIS G. LANGSTAFF. IVitnesses:

HAROLD S. MAOKAYE, KATHRYN B. OHEEVERs, 

